“Yeah, Desert Sky - Dream beneath the Desert Sky”
A drive through Joshua Tree National Park might take a couple hours, viewing the park from the road. An exploration of the park would take a lifetime. Joshua Tree National Park has over 550,000 acres of wilderness filled with a variety of plants and animals that make their home in this land shaped by strong winds, unpredictable torrents of rain, and climatic extremes. Every now and then, man intrudes in this wilderness and leaves his brief, passing mark among the surreal geologic features that cover the landscape. Let’s go see what we can find.
Ok, so most of my 49 constant readers are probably thinking to themselves, "I've never heard of the Desert Queen Dam. Sure, I've been to the Desert Queen Mine, the Desert Queen Well, I've taken the tour at the Desert Queen Ranch and read about the Desert Queen Petroglyphs, but what is this Desert Queen Dam? I think this guy's been out in the sun too long."
Read MoreThere's a lot of stuff going on in the general area around the Desert Queen Mine. If you park at the small parking area/trailhead for the DQ Mine and Pine City, you've got gold mines, stone building ruins, vanished cities, dams, debris, sparkly rocks, amazing vistas and many signs of the local Indians who once passed through this area during their seasonal migrations. And all within a couple miles hiking distance. It's like a nexus of amazement.
Read MoreIt was a beautiful morning for a hike in J Tree and the destination was the Desert Queen Mine. Even though most of the machinery, artifacts and buildings that were part of the mining operations are long gone, the lure of an old gold mine is still strong.
Read MoreThe Desert Queen Well is located along the same trail that will take you past the Wonderland Ranch, Worth Bagley's stone marker, and finally to the Wall Street Mill. The well sits on land that was located and developed by William Morgan sometime between 1905 and 1908. Morgan had hopes of erecting a mill on the site, but those plans never came to be.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
